Eur. Phys. J. B (2017) 90: 170
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-80372-4

Regular Article

Comparison of pure and combined search strategies for single and multiple targets^*

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK
² Physics Department, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
³ Queen Mary University of London, School of Mathematical Sciences, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
⁴ Institute for Physics & Astronomy, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany
⁵ Akhiezer Institute for Theoretical Physics NSC KIPT, 61108 Kharkov, Ukraine

^a e-mail: achechkin@kipt.kharkov.ua

Received: 25 June 2017
Published online: 13 September 2017

Abstract

We address the generic problem of random search for a point-like target on a line. Using the measures of search reliability and efficiency to quantify the random search quality, we compare Brownian search with Lévy search based on long-tailed jump length distributions. We then compare these results with a search process combined of two different long-tailed jump length distributions. Moreover, we study the case of multiple targets located by a Lévy searcher.